The video has gone pretty viral over the past few days. On Conan O'Brien's show last week, Emmy-award-winning comedian Louis C.K. explained why he didn't want to give his daughters (aged 7 and 10) smartphones. [You can watch it at Slate.com.] What he says was – as my friend and fellow parent Anastasia Goodstein commented in Facebook – profound. But to get the depth of it, listen all the way … [Read more...] about Why Louis C.K. doesn’t let his kids have phones
youth
With this teen texting study, only methodology was news
The methodology for a just-released study about teens and texting was new, but the findings don't seem to break much new ground – unless the news media had picked up on what the researchers didn't highlight. More on the reporting in a minute; first the study, published by researchers at University of Texas, Dallas, in the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology. Past studies of teens' "texting … [Read more...] about With this teen texting study, only methodology was news
Kids these days: ‘Better than we were,’ the President says
President Obama gave a preliminary statement last Sunday right after the jury gave its verdict in the Trayvon Martin case, but then after watching the controversy unfold in the days that followed, he said yesterday (7/19/13) in the White House briefing room that he thought it might be useful to expand on that a bit. Besides the calmness in his voice and quiet in the room for those 17+ minutes, … [Read more...] about Kids these days: ‘Better than we were,’ the President says
Stickers, emoji & other social-media conversation add-ons
You may've noticed this too: Online and on-phone conversations have gotten very mixed-media – very artful, in a sense. Have you noticed that our children are among the most creative mixed-media conversationalists now? It's delightful to see the fun they have with this. Take stickers, for example. Because they're now part of Version 3 of the Path app, as I mentioned in my last post, and Path's … [Read more...] about Stickers, emoji & other social-media conversation add-ons
‘Less is more’ for mobile teens
Wired speculates that, because some Asian texting apps – such as LINE, WeChat, Gangnam Style and Kakaotalk – have "slick user interfaces that focus on simplicity and visually pleasing graphics," these fast-growing apps will soon cross the Pacific, and at least one of them will take off in the US too. "Today, less is more." But Wired seems to contradict itself a bit, saying they're also adding … [Read more...] about ‘Less is more’ for mobile teens